Chapter 1 : Understanding the basis of Part III
Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré’s Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac (Poggi, 2020) |
§ 1. The Holy Virgin is the true Mother of all the children of the Church
3 Cardinal Peter Damian[1] calls the Holy Virgin the Mother of the Father, the source of the Fountain and the origin of the Prince. With regard to this, St Ambrose[2] and after him St Ildephonsus[3] apply to her the following words from the Canticle of love[4]: Thy belly[5] is like a heap of wheat, set about with lilies. Even though properly, speaking, she had in her virginal womb (her virginity being signified by the lilies) the one grain of wheat of which it is said in the Gospel[6] that unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone; nevertheless, because in this one grain is contained the abundant harvest which is to fill the fields of the Church, it is called not simply a grain but a heap of wheat; for, as St Epiphanius says[7]:
The Holy Virgin was the field which, having never been ploughed nor cultivated, nevertheless brought forth the grain of celestial wheat and, in Him, all the sheaves which were to be taken up to the granary in Paradise.
The words of St Athanasius[8] are particularly apposite in this connection. Whilst alluding to the nuptial Canticle of David[9], where it is said that the Spouse is on the right hand of her beloved, her beautiful robe adorned with golden borders, and that she is clothed round about with varieties[10], he calls the Holy Virgin the Mother of diversity[11], and here are the words he uses:
This second Eve is properly called the Mother of life, and she has within her the diversity of the first fruits of immortal life which she has brought forth to all the living.
There can be no doubt that the reason he calls her the Mother of diversity is by reason of the great diversity of spiritual children she bore in her sacred womb. This is readily confirmed by the words of the Saviour who gives her the same name in Psalm CXXXVIII, where we read : My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth[12]. The sense of the original text is: I was diversified in the womb of my mother[13], but how are we to understand the word diversified except as referring to the multitude of members of His mystical body who are so different from each other in their offices and perfections? These are members without whom the same Saviour in the same place calls Himself imperfect[14]; members who are all to be joined and incorporated with the Head in the sacred womb of the Virgin. That is why once this excellent conjoining is effected, the parts are united in a just proportion and the members are joined to the Head – all that remains is for them to be born by grace and to advance on a daily basis as they have already been accepted and enrolled in the number of God’s children.
Footnotes
[1] Serm. 3 de Nativit. B. Virg.
[2] Lib. de Instit. Virg., c. 13.
[3] Serm. 1 de Assumpt.
[4] Cant. vii. 2.
[5] belly: Douay-Rheims translation of Vulgate’s venter, meaning belly as containing the womb (DMLBS); belly :The womb, the uterus ( II.7. OED).
[6] Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. John xii. 24-25.
[7] Serm. de Laudib. Virg.
[8] Serm. de Annuntiat.
[9] The queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded clothing; surrounded with variety. Ps. XLIV 10.
[10] Ps. XLIV 15.
[11] The Douay-Rheims translation of Ps. XLIV.15 has varieties, but an earlier English translation has diversities (Wycliffite Bible, 1382).
[12] Ps. CXXXVIII. 15.
[13] Cf. For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb. NAS Psalm 139:13 (Hebr, numbering).
[14] Thy eyes did see my imperfect being. Ps. CXXXVIII. 16.
4 When all this is carefully considered, who would not agree that Holy Church has very good reason for saying that after the substantial grace of God filled the Blessed Virgin she bore secrets that she herself did not understand? When we try to think about the mysteries of the personal union of the Word with the flesh of the Virgin and the invisible operation of the Holy Ghost who had formed the divine body of the Saviour in her chaste womb, they become for us almost like a closed book. The spiritual descendants, moreover, that she conceived from that point onwards (without any special knowledge on her part) and the designs of divine predestination on the Saviour’s children, beginning in her and becoming evident through her, were indeed secrets known to no one except God Himself.
Who will not wonder at the greatness of this blessing poured upon the blessed womb of this Lady, whom we have good reason to call the nursery for Paradise? If we value so greatly the blessing given long ago to the womb of Sara, the spouse of Abraham, through the merit of his obedience, and the promise made that she would bear a son who would be blessed of God and from whom would come forth the Kings and Princes of whole peoples, how highly must we not esteem the fruitfulness of the Virgin who not only delivered unto the world the blessed fruit yearned for above everything else by all the nations of the earth, but who went beyond this by producing a multitude without number of spiritual children? From this sacred womb came forth the Apostolic college, a company of Prophets, an army of Martyrs, cohorts of Confessors, swarms of men and women in Religious orders, battalions of virgins, legions of Widows and Married women – in short, all those who today bless God in heaven and who will bless Him forever, are the fruit of the Mary’s womb. If this Virtuous lady of the Gospels were to have had an understanding of these mysteries, how she would have raised her voice still higher in calling blessed the womb wherein so many wonders were worked! Heaven however, was content with the innocence of this simple soul whilst the Holy Angels raised their thoughts high above the firmament, adoring profoundly the author of these works of incomprehensible greatness.
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
© Peter Bloor 2025
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